Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Teaser Tuesday: The Witch-Hunt Narrative by Ross D. Cheit

The book argues that even though many cases have been held up as classic examples of modern American "witch hunts," none of them truly fits that description. . . . Other cases that have been painted as witch-hunts turn out to involve significant, even overwhelming, evidence of guilt.

Cheit is a professor at Brown University who examined high-profile day-care abuse cases from the 1980s and undertook empirical studies of criminal sentencing in sex abuse cases to determine whether child sex abuse is a pervasive problem or a "witch-hunt" blown out of proportion by eager prosecutors and sensation-seeking reporters.

I got this book because of my work with child abuse survivors and it is fascinating. It has also generated quite a bit of buzz: